Elissa Redmiles

As an attendee at SIGCSE2014 I was able to attend many useful presentations and to give my Birds of a Feather talk. I really enjoyed attending the Google Supporter Session. Many of the ideas in CS First are similar to what I am trying to do with my SIGCSE Special Projects “Curriculum-In-A-Box “Grant, so it was great to hear other perspectives on how to tackle to problem of getting curriculum to teachers and glean valuable ideas. Similarly, I enjoyed attending the “Engaging Students through Artistic Expression” session, I am always looking for new and unique ways to help younger students, particularly girls, get into computer science. It was great to learn about new tools involving music and dance that could help teach them programming and engage them through interests that they already have. One of the highlights of the conference (in addition to meeting many wonderful people) was attending the Microsoft Supporter Session about TouchDevelop. I have long been seeking a way to transition young students from drag-and-drop software like Scratch to full programming, and TouchDevelop is the perfect solution to this problem! It was great to learn about the program from the people who developed it. I am excited to go back and show the students I work with how to use this program! Finally, I really enjoyed the opportunity to present my Birds of a Feather on mentorship. This was my first time presenting at a conference and I am so thankful to ACM-W for providing funding such that I could have this opportunity. It was a little daunting to present my Birds of a Feather but all of the attendees were very supportive, and I got positive feedback afterwards. I look forward to hopefully attending and presenting at future SIGCSEs! Thank you again for the generous ACM-W Scholarship!